On the 16th (local time), French President Emmanuel Macron decided to invoke Article 49, Paragraph 3 of the French Constitution, which allows the government to pass mandatory legislation without a parliamentary vote in relation to the pension reform bill, France 24 and AFP reported.
The Elysée Palace said President Macron had decided to invoke Article 49 paragraph 3 of the French Constitution.
This provision is a special administrative power that allows the passing of laws under the responsibility of the Prime Minister, bypassing the parliamentary vote.
The move came just minutes before the final vote in the House of Representatives, the media reported.
For the bill to pass, it needs a majority (289) of the 577 seats in the House of Representatives. The 249 seats of the ruling Renaissance Party and the 62 seats of the conservative Republican Party in favor of pension reform account for more than half, but many votes were expected.
The French Senate passed the government bill in the first round on the 11th with 195 in favor and 112 against. According to related procedures, the CMP, composed of seven French senators and seven members of the House of Representatives, passed the compromise bill on pension reform after over eight hours of marathon negotiations on the 15th. Along with the extension of the retirement age, the Republican Party’s proposal for bonus pension payments to working mothers was included.
And the Senate passed this final bill with a vote of 193 to 114 this morning, leaving only the final vote of the House of Representatives.
President Macron has pushed for a pension reform that would extend the retirement age by two years from the current 62 to 64 by 2030. He also increased the total service period for full pension payments to 43 years from 2027, an increase of one year from now, and increased the minimum pension amount to 1,200 euros per month instead.
The bill met overwhelming opposition and sparked massive strikes and protests across the country. There have been eight nationwide protests in the past six weeks.
With the move, Macron’s government is likely to face a vote of confidence. Article 49(3) of the Constitution is called a ‘double-edged sword’ as it gives the opposition party the right to call an immediate vote of confidence.
If the majority is not confident, the prime minister and the cabinet must resign en masse and the bill is canceled.
President Macron succeeded in re-election in June of last year, but the pan-passport ‘ensemble’ including the mid-ruling Renaissance Party failed to secure a majority of seats.
Opposition parties immediately objected to the decision. Olivier Fort, leader of the Socialist Party, criticized, “If the president does not have the support of the majority in the people and parliament, he must withdraw the bill.”
Source: Donga
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